we're living on cash in Portland, Oregon and paying down $70k by 12/31/2011

August Spencer Update: FINAL PAYMENT!

We are posting this a little bit later than normal… our final Spencer payment. We were able to pay down the remainder of our Sallie Mae-held student loans on August 23. It took us a total of eight months and 23 days to complete our goal, which is actually quite a bit faster than we originally expected. We’re thankful for having gotten our income up and our expenses way down this year.

WE’RE DEBT FREE!

We finally received reimbursement from moving expenses (we had to drastically reduce our payment in July after covering the cost of a U-Pack pod and cross-country move). We also realized Rachel had a big chunk of cash sitting in her business accounts that would better serve us in finishing our debt. These two piles of cash allowed us to pay off the final part of Spencer at an accelerated rate.

Originally, when I posted the grid I mentioned that we would deal with the horn later. I figured I would adjust the remaining ten squares to eat up any interest added along the way. At Maggie’s super suggestion, I decided to leave the horn squares at approximately $500 each. (The body squares each valued at $100). So Spencer still represents our original amount, and the pile of dung represents the interest we paid.

Just wait until you see the size of the interest we would have paid if we didn’t go ahead with this goal. Another post, another day.